The commitment of the leaders of the two sides to make progress before the second informal five-party meeting in July was referred to by the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Cyprus, Maria Angela Olgin, in remarks after her meeting with Cypriot President, Nikos Christodoulides.

Ms. Olingin said they discussed “the July meeting and all the results we will get from it.” “It is the commitment of the leaders, not the UN, to achieve this, this commitment, so we are working hard,” Ms. Olgin said.

She noted that she would have a meeting with both negotiators immediately afterwards, but also that she had had “very good meetings this week”, especially with the technical committees, the Heritage Committee, the Culture Committee, the Environment Committee and the newly formed Youth Committee. Referring to the Youth Committee, the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy said she had “a very excellent meeting” with them. “You see in young people, dreams and hope and the future, and that’s what we want, to start thinking about the future,” she said. She also said she had meetings with the Chamber of Commerce on both sides, “which is important,” she added.

Ms. Olgin said she will have a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara on Monday and will then travel to Athens where she will have a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis. He expressed intention to visit London and Brussels.

“And I hope in July we can make some progress and continue to work on this to build trust, which is so important, before anything else,” he said.

Asked by a reporter whether she was optimistic, Ms. Algin said, “I’m always optimistic, and I think it’s a good time to succeed and try to make life easier for people here.”

The meeting, the second with President Christodoulides since Ms Olegin’s arrival in Cyprus last week, lasted about an hour. Maria Angela Olgin also had two meetings with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

Immediately after her meeting with President Christodoulides, Ms. Olgin had a joint meeting with the two sides’ negotiators, Menelaos Menelaus and Gouness Onar.